I am an evil giraffe. Who no longer blogs about politics.

Hillfolk is a roleplaying system from Robin D. Laws that emphasizes inter-party relationships and dynamics in a tabletop RPG setting; which is to say, it’s a game that encourages the players to play off of each other’s characters, instead of genially tolerating occasions where that happens instead of, say, attacking the orc stronghold*. It’s well-loved (my wife raves about it, and more or less told me to kick into the KS without me having to hint at all) by the people who know about it, and is currently having the small problem that the book is getting fatter and fatter with all the stretch goals for added material being met.

LOCKED: $50,000: GUMSHOE OPEN LICENSE: We will release GUMSHOE, Robin’s previous game engine for Pelgrane, under an open license with its own GUMSHOE-compatible trademark for products in the English language. Robin will create a stripped-down system reference version of GUMSHOE to support the license.

GUMSHOE is a game where the mechanics of investigation and mystery-solving are given the same care and attention that most games give to magic and combat; it’s almost perfect for esoteric and horror game systems, and I… actually have a game setting in my head that could take advantage of it being Open License. If the KS unlocks the license, I’ll write my idea up and try to sell it to Pelgrane. Who knows? They may actually give me a hearing.

Moe Lane

*Not that there’s anything wrong with getting on with attacking the stronghold, or indeed most things that the party finds fun.

1 Comment

What’s to keep you from self-publishing? You’ve mentioned various times that you don’t think you can ever be published because of your views. Why not take a page from the fiction authors who are going their own way? I know you’re a fan of at least a few of them: Correia went solo before Baen took him on, there was Ric Locke’s Temporary Duty, and Sarah Hoyt bangs the indie drum all day. Lots of material is released electronic only now, and if nothing else there’s POD.